Police face major financial deficits in the future

According to a national survey conducted in 2019, citizens in the Netherlands are positive about the Dutch police – even more optimistic than the police are about themselves. Foreigners visiting the country, especially those from the United States and the United Kingdom, often comment on how safe they feel walking the streets at night in major cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. However, after the announced cutbacks to the Dutch police forces last month, that might all change. Only ten days after the collapse of Dick Schoof’s coalition government, David van Weel, Secretary of Justice and Security, announced in a letter to the Dutch Parliament that by 2030, the police services face a growing deficit of 300 million euros, and consequently a reduction of the police force. The growing deficit stems primarily from rising personnel costs, structural understaffing and insufficient budget indexation from the government.

2,500 jobs at stake
The growing deficit means that significant cutbacks will need to be made. As 76% of the police budget is for personnel, that will ultimately equate to the loss of 2,500 jobs. If the request was based on cutting back excessive expenditures and unnecessary costs, that would not be a problem. But the Dutch police forces are already operating under strained budgets and a shortage of personnel. Ultimately, fewer police officers will impact municipal order and public safety, especially residents of densely populated cities. Alarmed by the budget cuts, local mayors and the public prosecution service warned in an urgent letter to the Dutch House of Representatives that agreeing to these cutbacks will have noticeable consequences for towns and cities throughout the Netherlands. The letter claims that the elimination of 2,500 full-time jobs of the police force is ‘unacceptable’ and warns that the police force will no longer be able to investigate criminal offences and maintain public order.

Public safety at risk
Municipal officials fear that with the additional budget cuts, local police forces which are already stretched in maintaining and providing public safety will be entirely unable to do their work. Currently, police forces have insufficient manpower for thorough investigation of criminal cases, and this will only become worse. In the petition to the House of Representatives, municipal officials requested additional funding to prevent the drastic interventions the budget cuts will mean for the Dutch police force. If the police forces will have to cut back their services, the public will notice longer periods before the police can respond to incidents, and there will be fewer policemen patrolling neighbourhoods. Small towns and villages will feel the effects of the cutbacks even more, as they will not be able to provide as many services as they do currently.

 Lack of financial insight
However, municipal concerns about cutbacks in the police force might be exaggerated. With a total of more than 63,000 police personnel, a reduction of 2,500 is less than four percent. Moreover, according to a financial report published by the accounting firm Ernst and Young (EY) in April, the deficit should not have come as a surprise for insiders. The report warned that the police lacks sufficient insight into its own financial housekeeping and inadequately manages its projects. It also faces rapidly growing costs for information technology because of an outdated IT landscape. According to Janny Knol, national chief of police, to maintain an overview and continue to work financially responsibly, the police must ‘prioritize more strictly and manage in a more businesslike manner’. EY has been asked to make the financial component of this even more transparent in a follow-up study, which will involve close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Security, the unions and the works council. Knol stated that the police owes it to themselves to make conscious choices with the new insights, so that it can operate sufficiently but also ‘to keep the trust of politicians and society’.

Written by Benjamin B. Roberts